Theme: N/A (I did want to make sure to balance something rich with something more tangy)
Menue: Creamy Creole Crab Pots & Sweet and Spicy Tuna Wonton Cups
Cost: <$20
Served: 6
Prep time: ~3 hours
Pros: Kind of classy looking/sounding. Satisfying to see the wonton skins pop out of the pan perfectly shaped. Left over crab casserole is very good over rice.
Cons: Quite expensive/labor intensive to use real crab (I didn't...) & too rich as a main dish. Phyllo dough can be hard to find in a small town. The tuna in the salad was just about unnoticeable.
Mistakes: Pretty much only that it was hard to eat a lot of!
Changes: I used imitation crab and catfish instead of fresh crab. I don't have individual tiny baking pots, so I made it as a casserole. I made a pie crust (minus the sugar) instead of using phyllo because I couldn't find it (turns out it is sold at one place here in SM - probably the only one I didn't check). I pretty much always double everything for my family. I didn't have the special tuna the salad called for, so I just took regular canned tuna and added honey and pepper sauce.
Reviews: Jonas really liked the wonton cups (I thought maybe a bit too much dressing?). As I've already said, it was a bit too heavy, but my family liked it. :)
Rating: 4 out of 5 - Repeat with menue planning in mind...
070910
Theme: Indian
Menue: Dopiaza Indian Onion Curry, Samosa w/ Cilantro Dip & Cucumbers in Yogurt and Dill (The 2nd and 3rd are my mom's recipes). Chipate (or substitutes) & White Rice as well.
Cost: $19.50
Served: 9
Prep time: ~4 hours w/ lots of help
Pros: If there are kids who want to help make dinner, the Samosa are fun to make in a group. Baby onions are so cute.
Cons: A very labor intensive meal. Pealing tons of onions had everyone sniffling and making Samosa from scratch takes quite a while. The curry was too sweet.
Mistakes: I did not have nearly enough onions, but I stupidly added water as if I did, so I ended up with more of a soup than a curry.
Changes: I added a package of ground beef to the curry since I knew I didn't have enough onions. I generally leave any sort of red pepper ingredients out because they upset my stomach (most unfortunate). Thankfully, my mom started some rice cooking which was a popular option that I had not planned for. I couldn't find the instructions for "giger-garlic paste" so I just added ginger and garlic.
Reviews: Everyone politely enjoyed it, but I was very disheartened about my curry.
Rating: 2 of 5 (all the good part of the rating goes to the Samosa and cucumber w/ dill) - curry rejected.
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